Senate to probe Bulacan field trip that ended in students’ deaths

Senator Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III. INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines – Senator Aquilino Pimentel III said on Sunday he would initiate a Senate inquiry into the tragic Bulacan State University (Bulsu) field trip, where seven tourism students drowned after they were swept away by strong river currents.

Pimentel said he wanted to look into the school practice of organizing field trips, which were supposed to be educational activities.

The officials of the state-run university would be asked to shed light on the Aug. 19 incident in San Miguel, Bulacan, where the students were crossing the Madlum River when a strong current swept them away, Pimentel said.

At the same time, the senator wants to question the private tour company that organized the trip to determine if there were lapses on the part of its tour guides.

Pimentel also wants to know whether such outdoor activities for students are important, and whether authorities implement enough safety precautions on these trips.

He said schools should suspend any field trips pending the investigation.

Pimentel noted that some field trips were expensive, sometimes exceeding the cost of tuition. Some of the trips involved students in Luzon going to the Visayas and Mindanao and vice versa, he said.

“We will check if there is a racket involved here,” he said in a statement.

There have been field trips with little educational value, he said, such as those that had students going to shopping malls.

The Bulsu has initiated its own investigation.

The seven students who drowned were among a group accompanied by five tour guides and three faculty members.

Meanwhile, Bulsu officials will troop to Congress this week for a budget hearing but the drowning of its students is likely to dominate the discussions.

Valenzuela Rep. Sherwin Gatchalian said that more than the school’s spending program for 2015, he was interested in its procedures for holding off-campus activities for its students.

Gatchalian, a member of the committee on technical and higher education, said he would like to know why the parents of the students were not immediately informed about the drowning.

Gatchalian also said the Bulsu officials should explain why the school did not coordinate with officials of San Miguel on the visit of its tourism students to Madlum cave in Barangay (village) Sibul.

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